keith Holden senior dies suddenly

[mike binder]

cant say i can remember old keith as a little b4 my time ,i can remember middle keith who now coaches st judes u 14s ,where is son also called keith lives.Sad news am]nd my thoughts and prayers are all for the family ,keith is also a neighbour of mine and will be sadly missed.Does any 1 remember seeing him play and have any memories plz post on here if you do i have heard he was a great centre but thats as far as it goes 4 me

[cpwigan]

Seen a few DVD clips. He looked an excellent centre. I always thought his son had a lot of ability but injuries wrecked his career as I recall.

Hey Mike. Judes have a Huddart in their U14's. Is he any relation to the great Dick Huddart?

[Cruncher]

Keith Holden was a great centre in his day, and a tough one to boot.

He'll be sadly missed.

[mike binder]

cpwigan posted:
Seen a few DVD clips. He looked an excellent centre. I always thought his son had a lot of ability but injuries wrecked his career as I recall.

Hey Mike. Judes have a Huddart in their U14's. Is he any relation to the great Dick Huddart?

not a clue

[ian.birchall]

mike binder posted:
cant say i can remember old keith as a little b4 my time.Does any 1 remember seeing him play and have any memories please post on here if you do I have heard he was a great centre but thats as far as it goes for me

Needless to say yours truly does, late 1950s-early 1960s, centre to our then world record left wing signing Mick Sullivan (£11000 I recall). Not particularly fast by todays standards but strong and powerful and kept putting Mick Sullivan away for lots of his tries until Sullivan had a season where he had decided that he wanted away and managed to just be in front of/just behind Holdens passes before he (Sullivan) was transferred to Stains and replaced by Frank Carleton. Seem to recall that Holden was replaced by Alan Davies from Oldham who was probably even better but having a senior moment here and perhaps Davies replaced Eric Ashton. Can GeoffN help?

[cpwigan]

Allan Davies replaced Keith if my knowledge is correct. Davies was an awesome centre. My father rated him incredibly highly.

[wigan/pier]

Agreed my dad rated him highly..I only saw him when I was young...sadly missed all the same!

[AncientWarrior]

Very sad news.

We signed Keith twice at Wigan. Once when he left school and later he was re-signed from Leigh for £4,444 (an unusual fee - there must have been a reason behind it).

To me, his finest moment was when he side-stepped and wrong-footed the entire Hunslet defence to score the first (I think) try in the famous 1965 final at Wembley.

Alan Davies did in fact replace Keith at left centre and the word 'awesome' is an accurate description of him. He was signed from the mighty Oldham team around the same time as Frank Pitchford.

Extremely happy days!!!!